Hailee Klauka, ECI 430, October 10, 2012 (Rough Draft)

Crazy Capitalization: Focus on capitalization, specific focus on capitalizing words in titles.

Context: There are several capitalization rules that you want to impart onto your students. For example, they should understand that one has to capitalize the first letter of each sentence and that you should capitalize the first letter of a quotation in a sentence. Also, they should know that one has to capitalize proper nouns, such as the names of countries and cities.

Primary Instructional Objective and Common Core State Standard:
  • Common Core State Standard
    • Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
    • SWBAT demonstrate correct capitalization in titles.

Materials/Technology Resources Required:

Time:
  • Roughly 12-15 minutes
    • o 3 min introduction to capitalization
    • o 3 min for quizzes
    • o 2 min introduction for capitalization in a title
    • o 4 minutes for creation of two titles
    • o 2 min wrap-up/questions

Instructional Procedures/Steps:
  • Step 1: Show examples of several sentences with absolutely no capitalization. Where should the capitalization be at in these sentences?
    • Introduce the rules of capitalization provided on the attached worksheet by using the document camera. (3 minutes)
  • Step 2: Test student knowledge by using the link to several online quizzes. Three are provided in case there is a problem with a particular link. This will give students a chance to test their knowledge. As you go through the quiz, ask for volunteers to provide answers. (3 minutes)
  • Step 3: Use similar sentences, but explain that they are now perceived as a title.
    • Are the rules the same? Introduce the rules of capitalization in a title. (2 minutes)
  • Step 4: Have students test out their knowledge by working individually creating two sentences, demonstrating their knowledge of the rules of capitalization of titles. (4 minutes)
  • Step 5: Ask questions: Do students understand the difference?

Evaluation: In order to evaluate students, I would evaluate how well students do on the online quizzes as well as the creation of their individual titles.